Astriferous - Pulsations from the Black Orb

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A first album can be a traumatic experience for many bands, because they have to deal with critics, and it’s not easy sometimes. For an example, “Black Sabbath”, the first album of the forefathers of BLACK SABBATH, was execrated by many writers, including ones of respected magazines (but as always, the fans had a different opinion, and then Metal was born), and as they say, they never read another review again. But the problem is when a band is doing what was already done, because to deal with clichés and show your own face isn’t something easy on these cases. And the quartet ASTRIFEROUS have a long way to go, because “Pulsations from the Black Orb” shows potential, but an immature band. They band’s music is in an Old School Death Metal form that carries influences of the bands of UK, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden of the genre between the second half of the 80’s and the year of 1990, what means that they prefer to work on the most classical Death Metal trench they can find. But they fail in an important point: they still thinking as a garage band, or in other words, they still want to be DEATH, ENTOMBED, CARNAGE, DISMEMBER, MORGOTH, but not ASTRIFEROUS.

They have talent and potential to make better songs, but they need to turn off the music player and focus in bringing out of their hearts their own musical ideas. Let’s try to short things: it’s a recollection of clichés. Andrew Oswald (mixing), Jose Rodríguez (recording) and Dan Lowndes (mastering) worked in a form to bring the band to the most classic Death Metal sonority they could, but such form makes the feeling of listening to something moldy becomes more and more evident. And the instrumental song “Forlorn and Immemorial” shows that it was their will to sound in such way. Better luck next time with a better sonority. Even the artwork for the cover seems to be a clone (it’s impossible to not remind me of MASSACRE’s “From Beyond”).

Musically, the band shows that has potential to do something good, as shown on songs as “Blinding the Seven Eyes of God”, “Metasymbiosis”, “Ominous and Malevolent” and “Symmetries That Should Not Be”, with some good technical insight, but as the band seems to be worried on sounding like others, and not as itself, it’s hard to hear and not become disappointed.  It’s just ASTRIFEROUS first full length, so let’s hope that their next album can be better. For now, if you’re looking for something new, stay away of “Pulsations from the Black Orb”; but if you’re an addicted to mold as some are in cocaine, go for it deeply.

Songwriting: 6
Musicianship: 7
Memorability: 4
Production: 4